Powerful geomagnetic storm created radioactive bubbles in the upper atmosphere of the earth

Thin stains of high ionization density appeared in the layer and after an intense solar storm.

A team investigated the activity of the solar storm that launched this month on Earth in a region of the terrestrial ionosphere layer and, which is located in the atmosphere of about 90 to 120 kilometers above sea level.

“The layer and sporadic was not much studied during the storm because It seemed not to be affected by solar storms, ”said Huixin Liu, who led the one published in April in Geophysical Research Lettersem .

“But we wanted to see if something as powerful as this geomagnetic storm did something with the layer and,” Liu added. “What we found was very interesting.” And in fact something was done: in the ionosphere they suddenly arose thin stains of high ionization density – Known as layers and sporadic, or It is sporadic, to abbreviate.

The team collected the information with the help of the US and Taiwan cosmic-2 satellites network, as well as 37 terrestrial radars called ionosandas.

“This large amount of data was fundamental to detect the presence of and sporadic and to follow the place where they formed over time,” said Liu.

The ones and began to be sporadic in higher latitudes, but the phenomenon spread slowly toward the equator over time. “This feature of propagation of high latitudes for lows It suggests that the layers and sporadic are probably caused by neutral winds disturbed in the region and, ”Liu said.

“In our analysis, we found that the sporadic were formed after the main phase of the solar storm, during what we call the recovery phase“Added the researcher.